eMail alerts & Newsletter

Is that porn your child is watching online? How do you know?

Adult sexual content and culture has woven itself seamlessly into the fabric of the internet. Some of it is subtle, and some not so subtle, but there is now a wealth of dedicated porn websites available and plenty of demand to view the content. One of the most popular is Pornhub, and according to its 2015 year in review, visitors to the website watched more than 4.3 billion hours of porn.

Pornhub is just one of thousands of porn websites so these figures help us to gain some idea of just how much porn is available online. So what are the chances of young children viewing porn online? Research from the UK last year shows about 6% of school-aged children actually seek out pornography online, including almost 3% of primary school children. But most young children who view sexual images or sexual activity online come across it by accident. One US study back in 2007 found two-thirds of 10- to 17-years-olds viewing porn had “unwanted exposure”, and the figure was rising. This is a big issue!